


Secret Smiles

by CheyanneChika



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Attempt at Humor, Cheesy, Dammit Qui-Gon!, Fluff, M/M, Negotiations, Obiqui Fluff, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV First Person, POV Qui-Gon, Pining Qui-Gon, Qui-Gon Lives, Sappy, Sarcasm, Slow Burn, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-05-20 01:54:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5988129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheyanneChika/pseuds/CheyanneChika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Qui-Gon just wants Obi-Wan to smile at him again.</p><p>Anakin is quickly getting tired of these two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [luiniril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luiniril/gifts), [alamerysl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alamerysl/gifts).



> For Lu and Ala...for getting me into this mess, you now get to put up with this...this cheesy piece of sap.

Obi-Wan was smiling ever so slightly.

I only noticed this because I was looking out of the corner of my eye.  I knew that if I looked full on, that tiny smile would drop away into the façade of Jedi calm that he’d taken up upon his knighthood.  Between handling Anakin and the council and the fact that the Sith were on our very doorstep, I hadn’t had time to explain that my piss poor attitude toward the galaxy did not mean he had to stop smiling too.

Of course, I only smiled around the boy and when Obi-Wan wasn’t around so I’m fairly certain I’m the one to blame.

It doesn’t help that I’d like nothing better than to smile at him and have him smile back.

Of course, I think if I tried it at this point, my former padawan may think I’m having an aneurism and summon the healers.

“Is there something wrong with the wall panel?”  Obi-Wan’s voice interrupted the light trance I’d slipped into while contemplating his smile.

“No,” I murmured, shifting taut muscles.  I’d gone stiff.  Oh the perks of getting old.  I glanced over at him.  Sure enough, the smile was gone.

“Master, Obi-Wan—er, Knight Kenobi,” Anakin tripped over his words.  In private, Obi-Wan had given him permission to use his given name, but we were on a ship and anyone could be listening to us.  With the council looking for any excuse to remove Anakin from my charge, some of them may well stoop to using impropriety as faulty teaching on my part, never mind the behavior of my past padawans.

“What is it, Anakin?” Obi-Wan asked.

“The captain says we’re approaching the planet and they’re requesting proof that the Jedi negotiators are on board.”  It came out in a rush and I could tell he was trying to recite it exactly, before he could forget any of it. 

Obi-Wan and I looked at each other.  “Why?” I asked, not expecting an answer as I reached out with the Force.  There, a thousand lives, close by.  There were far too many to be a standard troop for monitoring a single planet.

“There’s a blockade,” Obi-Wan answered, feeling it too.  “Negotiations must have gone downhill while they were waiting for us.”

The talks involved two reptilian peoples with similar enough genetics to mix from two separate systems.  A noble youth from one had been visiting Courescant with friends when he met a princess from the other travelling to see her first Senate meeting with her father.  The two fell in love immediately, thinking they were of the same species and not from different star systems.  Now, if their parents could get their acts together long enough to let the two of them be happy, there could even be some trade involved.

And yet, despite similar physicality, their cultures clashed on nearly everything.  If She’lan’Esh had put up a blockade while the Terraptai contingent was still planetside, then they were as good as holding them hostage.

“This is not good, Qui-Gon,” Obi-Wan murmured.  “I’ll speak for us.”  With that, he was gone, the bulkhead door sliding shut behind him.

“Master?” I looked down at my padawan in silent question.  “Why—”  He hesitated, then switched to mind-to-mind contact along the training bond.  _Why doesn’t Obi-Wan ever smile?_

 _Prying into my private thoughts now?_ I fired back and, though the tone was playful, his shoulders slumped.  I ruffled his hair.  “He thinks he shouldn’t,” I told him. 

Ani’s eyebrows drew together.  “That’s silly.  He’s too young to be a grumpy old curmudgeon.”

I didn’t say anything to that.  Instead, I reached out to Obi-Wan, who let me in enough to hear the conversation he was having with a stern sounding woman on the holo.  At last, with a sharp jerk of her head, the feed was cut and I felt the shift of the blockade changing its rotation patterns to let us pass.

The ship sped up and I sat down to wait out the landing.  “Go watch pilot,” I told Anakin.

He grinned brightly and power-walked back to the door.  I sighed and leaned back.  Obi-Wan used to smile like that.

Then again, he was also thirteen standard once too.  The difference in our ages was pointed and exasperated me for two reasons.  He was too young to try and emulate me.  I was hardly a ‘grumpy old curmudgeon’ at twenty-three.  Not that I could truly remember that time in my life, recently knighted and thinking that Yoda was being too philosophical and Mace was already being too serious about everything despite the fact that he was younger than me.

The other reason was that he was too young for _me_.  Far too young for me to be having any personal thoughts about.  He was young, and attractive and when he smiled, it was brighter than the sunshine on Tatooine and as white as freshly fallen snow on Hoth.

...And I’ve been spending too much time reading poetry again.

I took a deep breath and sank into an easy pattern of inhalation and exhalation until the ship touched down.


	2. Chapter 2

Anakin found Obi-Wan coming sitting in the co-pilot’s chair.  He was serenely glaring out at the planet and the ships that were shifting out of their way.  Ani had never met anyone else who could serenely glare, nor had he thought such a thing was possible, but Obi-Wan managed it.  Master Qui-Gon could do serene and could glare but not both.  Master Windu could come pretty close though.

“Knight Kenobi,” Akakin murmured, using the correct title without stumbling this time.

Obi-Wan twitched and looked around, the glare sliding out of his eyes.  “Did you want to sit down?”

Anakin shook his head.  “Master Jinn said I could watch the landing.”

Obi-Wan nodded at looked back at the ships.  “What do you sense?” he asked out of the blue.

Anakin reached out with the Force.  From the nearby ships, there was fear and worry.  They didn’t know why they were suddenly protecting the planet and it made them wary.  Beyond that, he could feel anger, furious rage and more worry and fear on greater levels than those on the ships.

“They’re angry and afraid.”  Anakin briefly thought he might occasionally feel that way too.  He shoved those thoughts down.  “I’m not sure who is feeling what but it’s strong.”

“Anything else?” Obi-Wan pressed.

Anakin’s lips twisted down.  “O-Knight Kenobi, I—”

“Look past the anger,” Obi-Wan said softly.

The padawan concentrated, sifting past the negative feelings.  It took a very long moment of sifting.  Then he found love.  Love and passion and anger twisted around each other.  He pulled back and looked at the knight.  Then he froze. 

Obi-Wan was smiling, just a little.  “That love you can feel down there.  That’s why we’re here.  That’s what we’ve got to protect.”

Anakin’s eyes widened.  “Yes,” he said after a long time.

“Padawan,” the pilot, who’d been doing his best to act like he was invisible while the Jedi spoke, interrupted them.  “We’re about to hit atmo, please sit or hold on to something.”

Obi-wan stood and pulled Anakin into the vacated seat in one fluid motion and left to find another crash seat.  Anakin resisted the urge to openly gape at the knight’s back. 

“Setting down,” the pilot told him.  Anakin gripped the arm rests and watched the blackness of space turn to the greenish-blue of the She'lan'Eshi atmosphere.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a couple spelling edits in the other chapters, but nothing has changed otherwise.
> 
> For this chapter, I'm using phonetic spelling to represent how the natives speak, so any spelling errors in the dialogue are deliberate.

“Remember, padawan,” I told Anakin as we waited for the ship’s walkway to open and settle, “The Shi’lan’Esh have no lips so their words will sound different, even if they speak basic.  And they appreciate brutal honesty.”  It was one of the things they disagreed on with the Pterraptai. 

“They hide no emotion and often use sarcasm as humor,” Obi-Wan added.  At Ani’s questioning look, Obi-Wan lifted an eyebrow.  “Did you think that Corellians were the only ones to use it?”

Anakin looked slightly worried.  He didn’t do sarcasm very well, nor did I, for that matter and the day I see Obi-Wan use it is the day I proclaim my feelings for him.

Aloud, I only sighed and said, “Just be aware and don’t get offended.”

The greeting we got upon stepping off the ship was less than what we could have hoped for.  There was no landing platform, only a desert.  Nearby, I could see trees with long, floppy leaves and in the other direction, a hill that might have been a sand dune but for the tall, prickly-looking grass and shot up in small patches. But here, there was nothing but sand and the welcoming committee of soldiers surrounding a male and a female She’lan’Esh.  The guards stood on hind legs, using their tails for balance while the two in the circle rested on hind and fore legs—which doubled for hands when upright, though their ability to grip meant they ran faster on all fours—to make themselves a smaller target.

None of them wore clothing of any sort, their hardened, scaled bodies providing all the protection the needed.  The only thing that marked the two in the middle of the ring of guards as different, apart from the lack of blasters, was the glint of gold and silver piercing through the flesh above their yellow, slit-pupiled eyes and around their mouths.  I noticed that a couple of guards had one or two piercings, but nothing like the two they protected.

“Greetings, Jedi,” hissed the female as she pushed off the ground and landed upright, somehow still graceful.  “Forgi’e the rude introduction, h'ut the situation is,” she hesitated, “h'roblematic.”  Her jaw snapped on the last letter, making it click loudly through the silent group.  “I an Seki’Shira, Queen of the She’lan’Eshi.  This,” she nudged the male with her tail, a silent command to stand, “is my son, Taska’Resan.  Ny daughter was to greet you as well, un’ortunately, she has ‘arricaded hersel’ in her tunnels hy causing a ca’e-in of the entryway in ‘rotestation o’ the deterioration o’ the talks.”  She was clearly making an effort to use words that did not come easy to her.  I offered a sympathetic smile which she nodded to despite the exasperation that poured off her in waves.

The male, Taska’Resan, dipped his head in an approximation of a bow.  “Tikara’Rin has a holo she uses to talk to Jeeshai, howe’er she refuses to see anyone else.”

“Let us talk outside o’ the star’s light,” Seki’Shira said, glancing up, her tongue flicking out.  “ _Si thek!_ ”

 _It means Guards, move,_ I translated for Anakin in the training bond.

The guards spread, allowing the three Jedi to step into the circle and closed ranks again.  Taska’Resan dropped back to all fours but Seki’Shira remained upright.  She was only a few inches shorter than I and her eyes flicked in different directions to watch me and her son while Obi-Wan and Anakin brought up the rear.  We started for the hill.  “Tika caused the ca’e-in near dawn.  The soldiers are trying to dig her out ‘efore she can dig a new tunnel to the star’s light.”  Star’s light was probably more a reference to the surface than the sun’s actual light.  Sure enough, as we spoke, we went around the hill, and a gaping maw that led in and down came into view.  I briefly wondered if it would be dirt all the way down but what I couldn’t see in the dark until we were closer was a mosaic of stones and metal on every surface.

The guards parted at the mouth to let us through first.  “Don’t touch the shards,” Taska’Resan said as Anakin reached out automatically.  “They’ll cut you.”

Ani retracted his hand, but his eyes remained wide and staring. 

“Have the tunnels become unstable due to the cave-in?” Obi-Wan asked.

“No,” Seki’Shira answered.  She had returned to using all four limbs as feet and focused one eye up at us.  “Creating our tunnels is a rite of h’assage.  E’ery one is created h’y the young and they are isolated.  Tika likes the heat and dug close to star’s light.  She cracked through ‘ith the ca’e-in so the earth has settled.”

Obi-Wan and I shared a look that asked what in the Sith Hells had she used to break clean to the surface?

“Are you scared?” Seki-Shira asked, her teeth flashing.

Before I could say anything, Obi-Wan shrugged and smirked.  “Just wondering what kind of explosives she’ll use if the talks get any worse.”

There was a moment of silence in which I held my breath—for multiple reasons—and Ani’s eyes bulged, before a raspy laugh erupted from Seki-Shira’s mouth and Taska’Resan snorted so hard that an orange glow filled his nostrils and black smoke curled out.  “I like you Knight Keno’hi.  Tika’ll like you too.  You shall talk to her and get her to return.”

Obi-Wan sighed dramatically.  “Alas, I have no firepower to lure her to me.”  His eyes were wide and sad and Seki’Shira laughed again and flicked her tail out to brush against Obi-Wan’s calf, a sign of friendship and affection among the She’lan’Eshi.  Obi-Wan grinned down at her and nudged back, reciprocating the gesture.

 I think my metaphorical jaw, along with Anakin’s was dragging in the dirt behind us.


	4. Chapter 4

I quickly found Obi-Wan’s cheerful demeanor a welcome replacement of his usual serenity.  From research and the queen’s behavior, no one stood on propriety here and Obi-Wan was immediately taken into the fold with the jokes and laughter.  Seki’Shira, already the least formal queen I’d met, was loosening up even further.

Eventually, we came to a large room where several of the She’lan’Esh stood at attention or on four feet and took up half the room.  The middle was nearly empty but for a raised platform with a holo projector at its center and the far quarter held four beings I assumed were the Terraptai; all stood on hind legs and radiated fear and anger save one.  That one, who was playing with something in his webbed fingers, only seemed slightly nervous.

There were subtle differences between the two peoples.  While the She’lan’Esh drove piercings through their scaled flesh, the Terraptai wore metal and beads at their ankle joints and had wrapped thin metal wire around their tails and each wore a metal ring about its neck with glowing red lights on it.  The also had feathers tufting through the gaps in their scales.  I reached through the force for the one who was only nervous.  He was male, with dark red scales and lighter, almost pink feathers wrapping around his neck.  I wondered if there were reptiles on She’lan’Esh who also bore feathers because I could not determine how the princess would have mistaken her betrothed as one of her people.  This one felt young.  He was probably Jeeshai then, the only being in contact with Tikara’Rin.

Our arrival had all the reptiles turning to face us.  They all nodded in greeting but then the She’lan’Eshi surged forward, greeting us all over each other and exclaiming on how good it was of us to come and mediate.

I’d never seen a scandalized reptile before, but the Terraptai made an excellent facsimile of it.  At last, the She’lan’Eshi retreated and allowed us to greet the other beings in the room.  A male stepped forward.  He drummed against a bracelet on his left forelimb and the lights on the neck ring turned blue.  Then he spoke in his native tongue but basic emitted from the neck ring, which I now realized was a stylistic translation device.

“Greetings, Jedi.  I am Tuonanji, an ambassador, theoretically to Shi’lan’Esh.  With me are my wife, Shianoc, my aide, Norkiin and the Andreki family, Chokail, Tiranya and their son Jeeshai.”  Each of the first four nodded too us but Jeeshai stepped forward. 

“Jedi,” he said in raspy, hissing basic before we could introduce ourselves.  “The ‘lockade is making the others nervous.  I do not think there is an actual threat, nor does Tikara’Rin.  It is just the se’h’aratists on Pterraptarsis n’aking en’ty threats.  They ha’e no n’eans of attacking Shi’lan’Esh.”

“We’ll take that into consideration,” I said soothingly.  “I am Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn.  This is Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, and my padawan, Anakin Skywalker.” Obi-Wan and Anakin bowed in greeting.

“I see young Jeeshai is already getting down to business.”  I turned to find Seki’Shira had come up behind us.  She was once more standing as tall as I and looked more austere than she had upon our initial greeting.  “Please, join the circle.”  All of the reptiles settled around the platform, which was probably a table rather than a platform.  I knelt on the hard floor and Obi-Wan and Anakin came to kneel on either side of me. 

“In short, Jedi, we recei’ed a threat tracked to Pterraptarsis’s airs’ace.”  At a gesture, a visual of soundwaves appeared over the table. 

“ _This is an outrage,_ ” The words bore the mechanical tone of translation like Tuonanji’s device.  “ _There will be no talks, no trade, no peace between us.  We are us, you are not us.  Return our people or we will destroy you._ ”

“Attached to this co’unication were the designs o’ a s’ace to land n’issile.  It is large enou’ to destroy star’s light and dee’ into the crust, o’literating our tunnels, sa’e those closest to our core.”

“As I have said,” Tuonanji groused, “These beings do not represent our government.  They are troublemakers and treasonous separatists with nothing but words and the occasional blaster.”

“Then why do you not eradicate them?” Taska’Resan snapped.

“As I have already told you ten times or more, we are a democracy and saying something threatening, while punishable if caught, does not merit a death sentence.  Eradication would be impossible and unethical given that the separatists may have families, with children, who know naught of their words or may even be forced to stay!” Tounanji was clearly agitated but under that, I could sense something else.  A secret.  Perhaps he was related to one of the separatists?  I couldn’t be sure.

“Such threats cannot stand here,” Seki’Shira retorted.  “The ‘lockade is ‘rotection h’or you and us.  I do not hold you here.  You can go, h’ut Jeeshai, I think, does not intend to go unless Tikara’Rin joins hin.”

“Yes,” Jeeshai said, still not bothering with the translator his people used.  “Though I agree the ‘lockade is unnecessary.”

“Jedi,” Tuonanji had clearly given up on reasoning with the ruling party here, “This blockade makes our leaders angry.  They can speak to us, yes, but they cannot approach and I would not leave Jeeshai here alone.  He is a prince and to have an army of ships keeping him from his family is an insult to Pterraptarsis.”

“Have you any proof that these separatists on your planet are unable to mount an attack on Shi’lan’Eshi?” I asked carefully.

Tuonanji’s tongue flicked out, tasting the air.  “Nothing as such, save that they have never mounted such an attack before.  They have tried to usurp power from the ruling family three times in the last ten standard years and been thwarted easily.  They have never threatened another planet because they do not have the funds nor weaponry to mount interplanetary war.”

“As ‘ar as you know,” growled a Shi’lan’Esh further down the table.  This one had just as many piercings as the prince, but they were a dull shade of gray, iron, probably.  In the mad rush to introduce themselves, I hadn’t caught more than three names of the ten Shi’lan’Esh that perched around the table along with Seki’Shira and Taska’Resan.  Hers was not one of them.

“Taa Rouk?” the queen asked, looking over.  “You ordered the ‘lockade.”

Obi-Wan touched my leg and I felt his thoughts transmuted quickly.  _Taa Rouk is the general in peacetimes.  She is Taa Rouk Non’Inar of the Ru’Ashai family.  It’s a political position more than a military one.  The Shi’lan’Esh to her right is Korto Rouk Taska’Nuelli, the wartime general and the Taska’Resan’s uncle._

I knew most of this information from the datapad but had yet to match the faces to the names.  The fact that the war general was related to the royal family had somehow slipped my knowledge.  _On which side?_ I asked as the Taa Rouk began to wax poetic on her reasoning for the type of blockade, its positioning and its purpose.

_His father’s.  Seki’Shira is the ruler as the first surviving hatchling of her family’s first brood.  He would have been king, had he and the queen been agreeable but she chose his brother from a later brood._

_That could cause tension._

Obi-Wan seemed to sigh in his mind.  Whether exasperated with me or the situation, I couldn’t tell.  I should probably look over that section of the datapad again.  Still, his hand remained at my side and his thoughts were emotionless as they continued, as though this were a lesson. _He is attached to the next Shi’lan’Esh down from him, Lokar’Ardun.  He is one of the queen’s advisors.  Both have broods from previous relationships and therefore are free to be with whom they please._

_Ah,_ I replied, looking toward Lokar’Ardun, who was making no effort to appear anything other than utterly bored.  I glanced at Anakin.  His face showed neutrality but his mind was just as glum as the advisor’s exterior.  The two might make friends, though I failed to determine how an advisor would become such if five minutes of political nattering bored him to the point of not trying to hide it.

_Advising means he gets to tell the queen exactly what he thinks is the best for her and their people, politics aside.  You’ve just spent too much time listening to senate advisors, all of whom have political agendas._

I nodded slightly in acknowledgement.   _Are you bored as well?_   Obi-Wan's mind shields flickered to life and he removed his hand.  I did my best to ignore the cooling flesh and concentrate on the Taa Rouk.


End file.
